There’s an old baseball cliché that says, “momentum is today’s starting pitcher.” That pretty clearly explains why the Rangers cannot get anything going this year.

Their rotation is, depending on who takes the ball, battered, tired, old, hurt, inexperienced, or just ineffective. Surprisingly, the two best arms in the rotation right now are Cal Quantrill and Cody Bradford. Everyone else is suspect.

So, after Quantrill shuts down the Nationals with seven brilliant innings on Tuesday to give the Rangers a win in the opening game of their homestand after a brutal road trip, the hype machine was humming along in overtime. Joc Pederson predicted this team would be in the playoffs.

Then—thud. Kumar Rocker gets the ball.

In fairness to Rocker, who is 4-10 with a 4.46 ERA, he didn’t pitch poorly last night, allowing two earned runs in five innings. But while he didn’t give up his usual three runs in the first inning, he wasn’t all that sharp, either. Then the Rangers bullpen, which is second worst in baseball in the second half, came in and buried the Rangers.

Look at the ERAs of the Rangers starters and you see why this team is where it is: 

Jack Leiter 5.29

Kumar Rocker 4.46

MacKenzie Gore 4.45

Nathan Eovaldi 4.21

Jabob deGrom 3.95

Cal Quantrill 3.13

Cody Bradford 2.93,

You also see why they cannot build any sustained momentum. They just don’t have the pitching. 

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